Jerome Wetzel is the Chief Television Critic for Seat42F and a regular contributing reviewer on Blogcritics. He also appears on The Good, The Bad, and the Geeky podcast and Let's Talk TV With Barbara Barnett.

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Sunday, April 27, 2014

BAD TEACHER Makes For Bad Show

A couple of years ago, a pretty awful
“comedy” film hit theaters. Called BAD TEACHER, it followed the antics
of an abandoned trophy wife as she became an educator in the public
school system. For some inexplicable reason, someone thought a terrible
movie would make a great TV show. Hence, we now get BAD TEACHER on CBS,
beginning this Thursday at 9:30 p.m. ET.

The premise itself is highly flawed. A
woman with absolutely no educational training is somehow hired, without
license, degree, or credentials, to teach youngsters. She then acts
completely unprofessionally in front of staff, students, and parents,
and still gets to keep the job. Not only is this completely unrealistic,
teaching standards being quite high and requiring much preparation and
schooling, but it just isn’t funny.

Perhaps my own feelings about the field
of education, having studied to become a teacher myself, color my
opinion of BAD TEACHER. I’m sick of teachers being looked down upon,
criticized for the “high” pay (low compared to most positions that
require a Master’s degree), working hard for little credit, and being
blamed for things that are wrong with the system, graded on student
performance they often can’t control that much. At a time when press
about teachers is not good, it really irks me that a network would be
irresponsible enough to put this drivel on the air, further reinforcing
negative and untrue stereotypes.

Getting off my soapbox, I guess I’ll
tell you a little about the show itself. Ari Graynor (Fringe, Nick and
Nora’s Infinite Playlist) stars as Meredith Davis, the titular woman.
She gets nothing in her divorce, due to an iron-clad pre-nup, and so
sets about finding herself a new sugar daddy. While crashing with her
friends (‘Til Death’s Kat Foster and Luck’s Richard Kind), Meredith
discovers that their child’s school is full of eligible, rich dads.
Tricking inept sad-sack Principal Carl (David Alan Grier, In Living
Color) into giving her a job, Meredith begins trying to land the next
big one.

Even though Meredith routinely blows off
everyone at her new place of employment, she is slotted into a place in
the building’s hierarchy. Dorky Irene (Sara Gilbert, The Big Bang
Theory) latches on, forcing herself into position as Meredith’s bestie. A
former classmate, Joel (Ryan Hansen, Veronica Mars), decides he likes
Meredith and sticks around to be her love interest. Well, he will be
when she gets over her obsession with wealth. And the current Top Dog at
the school, controlling Ginny (Kristin Davis, Sex and the City),
decides Meredith is a threat, even though the blonde shows no ambition
whatsoever, and casts herself as the enemy.

Of these people, Joel is the only one
that comes across as interesting. Joel has an odd backstory, his penis
being posted in photographs all over the school by Meredith’s
predecessor, even though he doesn’t come across as the type of guy who
would spark such venom. He isn’t pushy with Meredith, hanging around but
waiting for her to come to him. He also seems the only one not
participating in the game, standing by with a smirk as Meredith makes a
fool of herself. He’s a normal, sane guy in a world populated with
stereotypes.

Of course, as a series like this must,
Meredith finds a heart at the end of the pilot. Unfortunately, there is
no build up or character growth to support this. For the entire half
hour, Meredith acts like a selfish jerk, and then, without any warning
or catalyst, she suddenly pretends to care. If the first episode can’t
give her even a hint of an arc, it’s unlikely the rest of the series
will correct the mistake.

It isn’t unusual for CBS to present a
crass, unfunny comedy. It’s not even unheard of for them to land really
good actors and force them into parts that are beneath them, though
seldom has been assembled on a bad project a group this good (being a
fan of Gilbert, Davis, Graynor, Hansen, and a number of non-central cast
members), wasted immensely. But BAD TEACHER has barely any redeeming
qualities and is certainly worth no one’s time.